Green and Orange
by NTDOSplat
Summary: After being betrayed by Moon, Crepe leaves Inkopolis and heads for the mountains. Her mission is to keep the traitor away from her friend, Eseral, and uncover the secrets of the largely unknown region. Time is running out for Crepe as she races against a vicious psychopath, bent on taking the lives of any and every inkling.
1. Short Story 1

The city of Inkopolis was booming with noise...news of the Splatfest had just been announced and the teams had been revealed. "Cats or Dogs? That is the question everyone is pondering on today." Eseral heard through her headphones...the breaking news had interrupted the music that was playing earlier, which caught Eseral quite off guard. "What is this? A Splatfest? This is the first time I've heard of such a thing." Eseral muttered. Eseral walked towards the booth that had just been set up...it explained what a Splatfest was, which made Eseral extremely excited. "An entire day devoted to turf war!?" She thought to her self. "This is awesome!" She walked up to her friends who were sitting next to the entrance to the lobby. "Did you guys hear about the Splatfest?" She asked. "A Splatfest?" One responded. "What's that?" Eseral piped up. "It's apparently a day devoted to the Squid Sisters and Competitive Turf War battles...now all my training will finally come in handy!" "Interesting." Her friend said and then wandered off to the booth. "You guys up for Turf?" Eseral asked the two inklings in front of her. One of them wore aviator goggles and had blue ink and the other wore a bobble hat and carried her new N-Zap around. "Sure." The one with blue ink responded. "Then let's go Moon!" Eseral and Moon walked into the lobby and chose their weapons. Eseral chose her trusty Inkbrush and Moon chose the Luna Blaster. They both entered a regular match and soon found themselves at their respective spawn points. "Darn...we were put on different teams." Eseral muttered. The teams in this Turf War were Orange and Green. Eseral was Green and Moon was Orange. The map seemed to be Walleye Warehouse, which excited Moon for it seemed to be the perfect map for the Luna. A voice boomed over the map. "The Meowtch starts in 3-2-1-GO!" Judd yelled as the inklings rushed across the map. Eseral went immediately towards the center to deal with the Orange Teams first stretch. She ran across a Splattershot JR. and another Inkbrush who had already made it to the center a few seconds before her. "Well look who we have here." The Splattershot JR. Said as it bubbled. Eseral tried to rush away, but she wasn't fast enough and was immediately splatted. Eseral spawned back up and saw that Moon had already pushed through to Green Team's base. "Sorry Moon, but I can't let this happen." Eseral said as she jumped on Moon and brushed her to oblivion. Moon tried to get out a blast to stop Eseral, but she wasn't fast enough and found herself at spawn. Eseral rushed back to the center to support the Splattershot who had managed to make his way up there. She took one portion, while the Splattershot took the other, and soon the entire center of the map was inked with green ink. "One Meowute left!" Judd said over the intercom. "C'mon." Eseral said to the Splattershot. "We have to stay up here." Soon they found themselves stuck in invading Orange ink. Eseral tried to escape, but she couldn't and found herself splatted again. She tried to rush in again, but it was too late. The Orange team had already won.


	2. Short Story 2

"No, I'm going to do something..." Crepe said. She realized that Eseral and Moon had already left to join a Turf War...clearly Eseral didn't care wether she came or not. Crepe decided to get up and act like she ignored Eseral. She found herself standing in front of a board detailing the Splatfest. She decided not to look too closely at it...she would be long gone before the Splatfest. Today she would leave Inkopolis to visit the mountains. A "master" inkling had asked her to meet them there. They were only a day away from Inkopolis, so she figured she would start now. She grabbed her mountain jacket of a bench and decided to head out. Directly outside of Inkopolis was a train station. The train had stops at many major landmarks that were nearby Inkopolis. She knew if she got a ticket to Moray Station, she would only be about a few hours away from the mountains. As Crepe left Inkopolis she was greeted by about 5 octoling standing outside. "What do you think you're doing?" Crepe asked the octolings in a stern tone. The octolings said nothing and pulled out the Octoshots they had hidden away. Crepe pulled out her N-Zap and went into a defensive position. The Octolings started surrounding Crepe. Crepe didn't want to hurt the octolings, but she had no choice. She pulled herself out of her defensive position and quickly started shooting them down.

"That wasn't even close...Green team got demolished." Eseral said to Moon. "Yeah...it was probably because of that JR. He managed to get up his bubbler every few seconds it seemed." Eseral walked out of Inkopolis Tower. "That was still a super fun match!" She said. "We should definitely do that again." Moon felt a buzzing on her wrist...there was a distress call. "Yeah...sure...I'll be right back." Moon said in a fast manner as she rushed out of Inkopolis. The distress call was from a group of octolings that were getting attacked directly outside of Inkopolis. Moon ran towards her comrades, only to see one of her friends shooting them down. "Crepe! You need to stop this!" Moon yelled. "I knew you were with them all along!" Crepe pointed the N-Zap at Moon. Crepe began firing her ink at Moon. Moon soon found herself covered in ink, only one shot away from death. She pulled her Luna Blaster out of her pocket. "Sorry Crepe, this was only in self-defense." The blaster shot fired, sending the inkling once known as Crepe into a puddle of ink. 


	3. Short Story 3

"Stay Fresh!" Eseral heard the Squid Sisters say in her headphones. A new brush had just been released...The Octobrush. After the newscast had ended, Eseral rushed to Ammo Knights. "Sheldon! You haven't sold out yet have you?" Eseral asked as she ran in. "Slow Down! We still have 20 left. You have 8,500 G?" Eseral looked into her wallet. She had just seen Spyke, so her funds were low. Luckily she managed to scrounger up 10,000 G from a few quick turf wars. "Yes!" Eseral responded as she threw her money at Sheldon and grabbed the brush. "Thank you!" Eseral said as she sprinted towards Inkopolis tower. She saw Moon standing by the tower, and quickly grabbed. "Come on! We have to check this new brush out." Eseral dragged Moon into the tower and jumped into a Turf War match. Moon hadn't had time to think, so she just jumped in after Eseral, finding herself on a spawn pad. Eseral again, was on the other team. She looked at her blaster. And then at the stage...Port Mackerel. "I hope this new brush isn't too powerful..." "The Meowtch starts in 3...2...1...GO!" Judd yelled over the intercom. Moon rushed out of the spawn pad and made it to the center as quickly as she could...sadly with a blaster she wasn't fast enough. Eseral was already there waiting for her, and she soon found herself at spawn. "Ugh!" Moon grunted. "I'm not used to the brush being that powerful...and it's range being the same range as the JR.!" Moon decided to play defensively this time and held back at her base. She slowly started picking off enemies one by one, until she got to the point where there was only one enemy left...Eseral. "So we meet again." Moon said to the towering figure standing above her. "Just have to get a straight shot..." Moon thought to herself, as she fired her blaster. The shot just barely missed Eseral making Moon wide open. Moon tried to escape, but it was too late...Eseral had her special up. No matter what Moon could have done, it would had resulted in her getting splatted. She decided to stay where she was and get it over with quickly. "Aren't you going to run?" Eseral asked. "No...there's no way of escape. You're either going to kill me now with the brush, or chase after me with your Kraken...There's no point." Eseral stood there, and then zoomed away. Apparently she was going to spare Moon's life this time...how nice. Moon decided not to follow after her and continued to defend her base until the end of the match. Thanks to her taking a defensive position, Moon's team won the match. "Ugh...that .52. Every time I would get near him, he would throw out a wall." Eseral said at the end of the match. "Yeah...they do that..." Moon replied. "Either that or use seekers on you...either way death is imminent on that map. The sliding doors of Inkopolis Tower opened and Moon and Eseral found themselves looking out towards Inkopolis once again. "I'm going to buy some new gear." Eseral stated. "Apparently you need a lot of ink recovery ups to use this brush..." Eseral walked towards Booyah base, and Moon found herself alone again. Time to communicate her findings...

Sorry this took so long to get out. With squad stuff and the last Splatfest, I hadn't really had time to work on it. Anyways I hope you enjoyed it :)


	4. The Mountains of Inkopolis: Prologue

The Mountains of Inkopolis  
Prologue: Awakening  
"It can't be my time yet..." Crepe said as the Luna Blaster shot fired straight towards her. She soon exploded into a pile of ink, finding herself somehow in squid form. She couldn't see a thing, yet could still feel her conscious, her life. She sat and waited in the pile of ink until she heard silence and got up. "I never thought Moon would be the one to betray me..." Crepe said to herself. She knew she had to do something about this...she knew because she was still alive, she just didn't know what. "...I guess I should just continue to the station. I should probably visit the mountains before I zoom towards my death." Crepe got up and found herself stark naked. She tried to scavenge for her clothes in the pile of ink, but found nothing...

"What?! We lost just because Team Dog was more popular?! Moon are you seeing this?" "I am...I wouldn't worry about it Eseral. You still get Super Sea Snails, and that's all that matters." Moon replied. "Yeah...I guess." Eseral went up to the Splatfest board to collect her snails, when she remembered something she had almost forgot. "Hey Moon...I saw Crepe in a battle yesterday morning...I thought she had died." Moon looked at Eseral with an expression of shock. "She's...Still...Alive? How?!" Moon replied in a startled tone. "That was what I was wondering...I was hoping you might have known." Moon began to walk away. "Moon, where you going?" Eseral asked. "I have to...deal with something."

"How did she survive?!" Moon thought to herself. "I clearly saw her explode in a puddle of ink...At least I know exactly where she went. Looks like I'm catching the next train." Moon grabbed her Octoshot and ran towards Inkopolis Station. The run was short, but convoluted. She had to get through cars, planes, and helicopters which were all landing nearby. But at least the station was only a mile away, so it wasn't too long of a run. By the time Moon had reached the station, she had G in her hand and was ready to shove it in the face of whoever could give her a ticket.

Crepe faced towards the great mountains. They rose beyond her eye sight and were wider than she could have ever imagined. She gazed up at them in complete awe, waiting for something to happen...

The train flew past the station, not seeming like it was ever going to stop in the first place. "Damn..." Moon looked around her and saw the pieces of trash speckled around the station. "I don't want to spend any more time here than I have to...Looks like we're chasing after a train." Moon started equipping run speed gear, and jumped onto the tracks.

The train was getting closer and closer, Moon was almost in distance to jump on the train. She tried to speed up, but she couldn't go any faster. The train kept getting farther and farther away until Moon could no longer see it. She decided to jump back up from the tracks, but as she turned around she saw a train coming at her at inkbrush speed.

"Spyke, could you reroll this Anchor Sweat?" Eseral handed him a Super Sea Snail, and he quickly re-rolled the sweat. "Thank you, Spyke!" Eseral replied as she saw that the gear had all strength ups. She walked back towards the center of Inkopolis and saw a group of inklings huddled together. "Hey guys! ...Watcha up too?" The inklings stared at her with a deathly stare. "None of your business, Little Missy." One Male inkling responded. He wore a Zekko Mesh and a Retro Gamer jersey. Eseral continued walking forward. "Missy! We told you to back off!" The male inkling turned around and began scowling at Eseral. He had orange tentacles and pink eyes. Eseral looked at him and immediately thought of how...familiar he looked.

Eseral stared at him a bit more closely. "...Hello? Are you brain dead?" The group around him laughed. "What?...No!" Eseral turned a bright shade of red. "What did you say?" "I'm not brain dead!" "I swear I heard something, but maybe it's just the wind." Eseral began scowling up her face. "Ugh! You know what...this isn't worth my time." Eseral said and took two steps in the opposite direction of the group. "Phyic...grab her before she gets away." One of the inklings murmured. Suddenly the the male inkling reached out and grabbed Eseral by the collar of her Anchor Sweat. "You stay here, missy." The inkling said. Eseral was startled and immediately swatted at the male inkling, hoping he would let her go.

"...This. This is amazing." Crepe said as she looked up at the tops of the mountains above her. They glistened with snow, a substance Crepe had never seen before, but had heard a lot about. Now was her time...And it couldn't be any better of a time. Eseral was in danger...this was the reasoning for leaving in the first place. Moon must be put to a stop.

Author's note: Yes, this prologue is kind of a mess isn't it XD I pushed to get it out a day earlier than planned, which didn't give me much time to edit. Anyways, what I am trying to do with the prologue is leave a few cliffhangers and start off a plot. I'm currently in quite the writer's block, so I really don't know what to put in the middle of the story. I know the beginning and the ending, but not how to get to either of those points.

Thank you for reading the mess of the prologue I made, and please tell me if there are any glaring errors. (i.e. Plot holes, grammar errors, spelling errors, etc;)


	5. The Mountains of Inkopolis: Chapter 1

Author's Note: A bit short, but at least it's only 1 day late, right? So, tomorrow I will start doing entries about twice a week set between Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 named Moon's Entries. This will focus on the development of the clone, which isn't discussed much during this chapter. And as I said in the preview this is set a few weeks before the prologue. Hope you enjoy :)

The Mountains of Inkopolis  
Chapter 1: The Rising Problem

The lights flickered around the building. This meant the machine was finished...it was time. "Are you ready?" Asked a figure shadowed in the distance. "As ready as I'll ever be..." Moon replied. "Hop in then." Moon walked into the machine. She cautiously looked around the machine. There were blinking lights all around her. The machine would start up soon. "Cloning in 5...4...3..." Moon wanted to back out, but it was too late. She was stuck into this situation...she had no other choice.

The clone appeared to be a bit taller than Moon herself. It seemed as though he towered above her, mindless, thoughtless, lifeless. Pupils soon appeared in his eyes, showing the pink color Moon's eyes had always been. "It'll be a few days until he's fully formed..." The shadow said. "I'll release him when he's done...Just...make sure Eseral doesn't find out. If she knew, our plan would be over.

"Ugh...how do I even climb up this mountain?" Crepe finally realized she didn't have rope on her. "Guess I'll have to climb up it in my bare hands...eww." Crepe grabbed a rock and immediately felt the sharp edge jabbing into her hand. Even though the pain coursed through her body, she kept on climbing. The pain would numb soon, leaving an empty feeling.

A being walked out the machine, almost fully formed. The shadow analyzed it. "Near on perfect clone..." he muttered. The clone had copied Moon's exact figure, attitude and look. The only difference was the gender. The clone looked at the shadow somewhat confused. It was yet to fully develop its speech program, so it couldn't say much of anything to express its confusion. The shadow left silently and quickly leaving the inkling all to himself. "Thwa si ouy?" The inkling tried to ask the shadow before he left. There was no reply.

Her clone was now fully functional. This was surprising news. She thought it might take weeks or months for him to get to that point, but it only took him a few days. His only problem was his speech program, that needed a few bugs worked out of it. Besides that, he was ready to enter Inkopolis and fight in Turf Wars to build up skill. Moon just had to make sure Eseral didn't run into him before she needed to. If she found out too quickly everything would be over and the mission would be a failure.

It had now been 3 weeks since the clone was released into Inkopolis, and Eseral hadn't discovered it yet, that was the good thing. The bad thing was the Squidbeak Splatoon had started up again. They had started attacking Octo Valley with full force. This had Moon at a dilemma...does she help her people, or make sure Eseral and Crepe don't get in the way...

"WELCOME TO OCTOLING TRAINING CAMP!" The instructor shouted at the group of Octolings before him. "YOU ARE ALL HERE TO STOP THE NEWEST INKVANSION OF INKLINGS, SO LET'S GET RIGHT TO IT!" The Octolings stood up and stood at attention. Moon looked around her, to see what sort of people she would be fighting with for the next month. The group seemed focused and powerful, ready to risk their lives for their people..."WE WILL START BY GOING TO THE TRAINING ROOM!" The instructor yelled interrupting Moon's thoughts. Now was her time, the training had begun.

Crepe had been camping for what seemed to be the last several days. It seemed as though the climb would take forever...several day's progress and she wasn't getting anywhere. Soon she would run out of rations, liquids, life. It was time to go hunting.


	6. Moon's Entries: The Clone Rises

Chapter Hub| /p/l5s0e]

Moon's Entries  
Part 2: Mission Accomplished

Phyic has been getting stronger and stronger every day. After turfing and doing ranked battles for a few days, he has reached my skill level...It's now time to send him on his first mission. I decided to start with a smaller mission, before he goes to take Cuttlefish...This time, we'll be "disarming" a few agents of the New Squidbeak Platoon. Phyic's goal during this mission is to permanently disarm a pair of inklings...take their weapons and then dispose of them. Phyic feels as though this will be a cake walk, but I don't feel the same...  
*Date Change*

I...I...didn't realize his power. Those inklings...I feel so bad for them. Phyic decided to take things into his hands...quite literally. I saw him...I...I saw him tear off their arms completely and leave the pair to die...My clone is a monster. He does things with no remorse, no sorrow, no feeling...I can't handle this. We were supposed to dispose of them, not leave them crying in pain. I understand I should have hate towards my enemies...but...but no one should die like that. The screams, the fear, the terror is still stuck in my head...It'll never leave. How can anyone live with themselves after doing that...

Phyic got praised for his actions...praised for taking things into his own hands. I now see who needs to be disposed of. I need to stop him before...before...Eseral...No, I will stop him, even if I have to die in utter pain and agony, I will make sure he never touches another inkling again.

*Note* This one was a bit short, but I guess that's what I'm going for here...Anyways the next chapter of The Mountains of Inkopolis will be up sometime near the end of next week hopefully. It should also be up on by then. Anyways thank you for reading and Stay Fresh!


	7. Moon's Entries: Mission Accomplished

Chapter Hub| /p/l5s0e]

Moon's Entries  
Part 2: Mission Accomplished

Phyic has been getting stronger and stronger every day. After turfing and doing ranked battles for a few days, he has reached my skill level...It's now time to send him on his first mission. I decided to start with a smaller mission, before he goes to take Cuttlefish...This time, we'll be "disarming" a few agents of the New Squidbeak Platoon. Phyic's goal during this mission is to permanently disarm a pair of inklings...take their weapons and then dispose of them. Phyic feels as though this will be a cake walk, but I don't feel the same...  
*Date Change*

I...I...didn't realize his power. Those inklings...I feel so bad for them. Phyic decided to take things into his hands...quite literally. I saw him...I...I saw him tear off their arms completely and leave the pair to die...My clone is a monster. He does things with no remorse, no sorrow, no feeling...I can't handle this. We were supposed to dispose of them, not leave them crying in pain. I understand I should have hate towards my enemies...but...but no one should die like that. The screams, the fear, the terror is still stuck in my head...It'll never leave. How can anyone live with themselves after doing that...

Phyic got praised for his actions...praised for taking things into his own hands. I now see who needs to be disposed of. I need to stop him before...before...Eseral...No, I will stop him, even if I have to die in utter pain and agony, I will make sure he never touches another inkling again.

*Note* This one was a bit short, but I guess that's what I'm going for here...Anyways the next chapter of The Mountains of Inkopolis will be up sometime near the end of next week hopefully. It should also be up on by then. Anyways thank you for reading and Stay Fresh!


	8. The Mountains of Inkopolis: Chapter 2

[Chapter Hub| /p/l5s0e]

Note: So yeah...this chapter is really late. I think I originally scheduled this chapter to be released sometime in early September, so this is over a month overdue now. Anyways, I highly suggest that you read the previous Moon Entries(Which are a part of the chapter Hub above) before you read this chapter since it helps explain some things. Although if you decide to be stubborn and don't read them this chapter should still make sense XD. I spent quite a bit on this chapter, so I really hope you guys enjoy this! Happy reading! :)

The Mountains of Inkopolis  
Chapter 2: Time to Hunt

Crepe hung off the rope she had recently thrown. If she could find any animals or berries, she could possibly have rations for a few more days. As she hung off the rope, something caught her eye...something she would never forget.

Their bodies began to stare into Crepe, their souls perishing in the matter of seconds. The evidence, gone. Crepe picked up one of the lifeless bodies, and felt the cold embrace of death. They really were dead..."Such a horrible way to go..." Crepe whispered to herself as she pick up one of the disembodied arms next to the body. She began to examine the arm closely, trying to evaluate how it come off. "It...It was just torn off from its body...who could be this heartless?"

"Heh...Mission Successful." Moon stared in disgust at an Octoling, who had a Legendary Cap on signifying his authority. "How...How is that a successful mission?" The Octoling looked at Moon with a confused look. "What do you mean? Phyic accomplished the objective. He even did it with flying colors! What more could you ask for?" "While he did accomplish the mission, you did not see him do it first hand. What he did...it was so heartless. It was like he didn't care he took 2 lives away..." the Octoling looked up at Moon. "I can't argue with you there...but what I can say is that we are...temporarily releasing you. You no longer work for us." Moon looked into the octoling with rage in her eyes. "Next time you try seeing someone's arm being completely torn off..." Moon muttered to herself as she left the commander's office.

Moon looked at the barren land laid out before.

"Heh..I wonder if anyone remembers when our valley wasn't just a bunch of kettles."

Moon kicked one of the kettles as she left the valley, and emerged onto Inkopolis.

"Moon!" Eseral ran towards Moon, which startled her quite a bit. "I'm so glad you're ok...There were apparently two inklings who got viciously murdered. I'm so glad you weren't one of them." "Huh...that's the first I've heard of this..." Moon tried to keep a straight face while saying this, jerking her tears back.  
"Moon...You look upset." Eseral noted. "What?! No...I'm fine. I just have to...leave for a bit. I'll be back." Moon began wandering towards the train station. "Wait! I want to come with you!" Eseral came running towards Moon. "Um..." Moon sighed. "Sure." A excited grin came across Eseral's face.

Crepe dragged the bodies behind her. Besides their arms being torn off, the bodies were still in perfect shape. This meant the death was more recent than Crepe originally thought. Crepe began pulling a body towards a small tent that was covered with dirt. An inkling exited the tent with a look of horror and disgust.

"You! You did it didn't you?" "What?! I'm just bringing them here for you to-" "Sure...just to analyze, huh?" The inkling pulled out a weapon unfamiliar to Crepe. "This is the prototype of the "ranged blaster". It will completely obliterate you in one shot."

Crepe pulled out her N-Zap, and out of instinct began shooting at the inkling. The inkling dodged, and shot at Crepe. The shot was a bit misaimed, and went right above her head, doing just enough damage to not immediately kill her. Crepe began shooting at the inkling once again, this time hitting the inkling's leg.

The inkling screamed in pain. "You are the murderer..."

The inkling began clutching her leg. Now that Crepe got a chance to get a good look at the inkling, she saw that blood was spewing out of her leg.

"Just stay there. I'm going to grab bandages"

Crepe ran towards her first-aid bag(which she had brought for safety precautions) and pulled out a roll of bandages.

"Won't you just end my-" The inkling began screaming in pain once again. "I don't know who you are...but you're clearly valuable." Crepe began putting a bandage around the inkling's injured leg. "Do you know if there's anyone else in that tent?" Crepe asked the injured inkling. "Heh...so you can murder more of-" Crepe gave the inkling a deadly glare. "Being snappy with me isn't helping anyone. I'm trying to get you help. Just be thankful you're still living." "HOW CAN I BE THANKFUL WHEN I'M STILL IN AGONY FROM WHAT YOU DID TO ME!" The inkling screamed in agony once more. "Calm down...all getting angry will do right now is give you more pain. Just try to relax." Crepe ran off towards the tent.

The tent was absolutely caked with dirt. It seemed as though no one had tried to clean it off for years. Crepe opened the tent and saw two inklings sitting on a carpet doing some sort of ritual.

"Your friend, she needs-" "Hush." One of the inklings said.

This inkling had blue tentacles, and was covered with bandages. The other was a light purple inkling, who looked rather elderly. After the ritual ended, the blue inkling looked up.

"Now, what were you saying?" The blue inkling looked slightly concerned. "Your friend...a-" Crepe realized that she had never really looked closely at the inkling, and couldn't describe any of her physical exterior. "Your friend...she's hurt. I tried to bandage her, but she's still in a lot of pain. You should check her out." "Shoot..." the blue inkling looked at the elderly purple inkling. "I told Sigma not to go out..." The blue inkling ran out of the tent, while the elderly inkling continued sitting in the tent.

"What's going on here...I didn't know any one still lived up here..." The elderly inkling looked up, and stared deeply into the inkling. "Innocence." She spoke. "What...how does that have to do with anything?" Crepe asked, with a confused expression. "Don't worry about Sigma...she'll be ok. She's still young, so she doesn't think logically. We're sorry if she attacked you." A smile came to Crepe's face. "It's fine. I'm just glad she's ok." The purple inkling began starting into Crepe once again. "You...you're escaping for someone. Looking for something here. What are you looking for?"

Moon took her seat on the train. Eseral took a seat next to her.

"...What's going on right now? You seem...very concerned." Moon looked up. "I've been going through a lot of things recently...I'm just trying to forget about what-" Moon stopped herself. She had almost forgot she was talking to Eseral.  
Eseral looked at Moon weirdly, but decided to drop the conversation. "So, where are we headed?" Eseral asked. Moon had to think about this. She couldn't just tell Eseral that they were headed towards the mountain to hunt down Crepe, she would have to say something else...

"What am I looking for?" Crepe said to herself. She walked across a clear sunny plain of land. A cave soon caught her eye. She began to walk towards the cave, and saw a glimmer that must have subliminally caught her eye earlier. As she walked closer the glimmer became brighter and brighter, almost to the point where it was blinding. Crepe entered the cave, and the glimmer dimmed. Still visible with a dim light. The glimmer seemed to be coming from a glass panel in the middle of the cave. It had something written on it in an unintelligible writing. Some small critters began to scuttle around Crepe, some making small hissing noises. The small creatures began swarming around each other, creating something much larger. Crepe decided at this point it would be a good time to leave the cave and exited back into the plain.

Moon exited the train with Eseral shortly behind her. Moon looked straight at Eseral,

"I have to go do something real quick…I'll be right back." Moon ran off quickly without giving Eseral much time to think and leaving her confused. Moon ran out straight back into the mountains, and tried looking for Crepe, but found nothing. "She must of left..." Moon said angrily.

Crepe walked across the plain and began heading back towards the tent. Maybe they knew about the glass...maybe they knew what it meant. There had to be a reason why they were just camping out here. Crepe entered the tent and saw the inkling she had previously fought slowly bleeding out on the floor.

"Help me..." Sigma whispered to Crepe. "What happened? I thought they were going to take care of you." Sigma looked up at Crepe "They...stabbed me in the leg until-" Sigma gasped for air. "Until the pain...went away. But it-" She gasped for air once again. "It only came back. Stronger than it was-" Sigma gasped for air one last time, "Before..." She trailed off. "Sigma, are you ok?" Crepe never got a response.

Thanks for reading it all! :) Please put any suggestions or errors I made in the comments below. It really helps!


	9. Short Story 4

The Mountains of Inkopolis  
[Chapter Hub| /p/l5s0e]  
Short Story #1:  
Returning Problems

*Note*: Better late than never, right? I apologize for this being so late to come out. Lots and lots of projects have been eating up my time recently, and I've rarely had enough time to myself to sit down and write. The next story, which will be slightly shorter, will be out before the end of the month. Thank you, and enjoy! :)

As the dust finally settled around her, Crepe got sight of the monster she would be fighting. It looked as though it was a giant arachnid, a creature that was presumed to be extinct. Its legs were pitch black, with stripes of red. Its head had the same coloring. Crepe held up her N-zap. "What even is this thing?" She uttered to herself as she pulled her trigger. The creature hissed while ink came flying towards it, and began to move forward in a fast movement. Crepe began to back out of the cave she was in, hoping she could drag the creature out into the light. As she took slow steps backwards, a sticky substance came spiraling towards her. The substance wrapped her in a sticky uncomfortable mess. Only slightly hampering her slow movement, Crepe continued to take steps backwards out of the cave.

As she stepped back into the daylight, the arachnid stopped following her, retreating to the darkness of the cave.  
"This...sticky stuff..." Crepe flung around to try to get it off of her.  
"Doesn't look like that's coming off anytime soon." Crepe whipped around to see Moon standing before her. She quickly went into her defensive position. "You..." "Don't worry...I'm not here to hurt you...this time." Moon walked closer towards Crepe. "Get away from me...you...you...monster."

"Monster? Heh...I only tried to kill you because I had to. Anyways...I came here to discuss something with you. Although as of now, it looks like we've got bigger problems." Moon gestured towards the sticky mess Crepe had gotten herself into. "It's fine..." Crepe struggled some more. Moon sighed. "Let me grab a branch...then maybe we can get some of this...stuff...off you." Moon ran off and quickly came back with a branch of about 2 feet in size. "Why such a big branch?" Crepe asked. "I don't want this stuff on me...I don't even know what it is, nevertheless wether or not it's dangerous." Moon removed most of the web, only leaving a few spots here or there on Crepe. "C'mon now...let's get going."

"Going where?" Crepe asked, very confused about what was happening. "Don't worry about the destination...it'll become evident once we get there." Moon continued to march forward. "How's Eseral been doing?" Crepe asked, remembering that she hadn't seen her in weeks. "Clingy as always...I swear, she never leaves. Still, she's useful to have around." Moon continued marching forward, now at a faster pace. "How far off are we?" "Not too far now, just about another quarter-mile. It should be in sight now." Crepe looked forward and saw an old rusty shack. "You mean that...thing? What's in there?" Crepe looked closer at the shack, and saw little writings scribbled all over it. "Just an...experiment. It lives there when it's offline...I just want to show you it. It's pretty interesting." They now came upon feet of the shack. Moon walked up to it and opened the door. "Phyic...the target is here."


End file.
